Fruit and Vegetable Carving

The history of carving food into sculptured objects is ancient. Archaeologists have found bread and pudding molds of animal and human shapes at sites from Babylon to Roman Britain. The origins of fruit and vegetable carving are disputed. Many people believe it to have begun in Sukothai, Thailand 700 years ago, originated in the time of the Tang Dynasty and the Sung Dynasty in China. Or perhaps Japan is the root of the art of fruit and vegetable carving, called Mukimono in Japanese.

Techniques
The techniques of vegetable and fruit carving vary from person to person, as does the final result. Some carvings present more artistic detail, while others have simple, yet beautiful shapes. Vegetable carving is generally used as a garnish, but it can also be used for flower arranging.

Uses
Whatever way vegetable carving originated, it is now known and practiced worldwide. Vegetable carving is flaunted in many different Asian restaurants, cruises, hotels, and other various places. In the mid 20th Century, the art of vegetable carving began to grow outside Asia. Since then other cultures have slowly come to appreciate the beauty and culture associated with the practice. The products of vegetable carving are generally flowers or birds; however, the only limit is ones imagination.

Ice Sculpture
Ice sculpture is a form of sculpture that uses ice as the raw material. Sculptures from ice can be abstract or realistic and can be functional or purely decorative. The story of the creation of the dish Peach Melba recounts that Chef Auguste Escoffier used an ice swan to present the dish. Ice sculptures are generally associated with special or extravagant events because of their limited lifetime. The lifetime of a sculpture is determined primarily by the temperature of its environment and thus, a sculpture can last from mere minutes to possibly months.

Techniques
The temperature of the environment affects how quickly the piece must be completed to avoid the effects of melting; Some sculptures can be completed in as little as ten minutes when using proper tools.

Uses
Ice sculptures may be used to enhance the presentation of foods, especially cold foods such as seafood or sorbets.

Raw material
Sculptures are generally carved from blocks of ice. Typically, ideal carving ice is made from pure, clean water. White ice blocks look like snow and are sometimes carved. Colored ice blocks are produced by adding dyes to the ice and can be carved as well. Naturally made blocks can be cut to almost any size from frozen rivers or from "ice quarries," which are essentially lakes or ponds that have frozen over. Large ice blocks must be moved by heavy machinery and are used for large ice sculpting events or as part of an ice hotel.

At holiday buffets and Sunday brunches, large restaurants and hotels will use ice sculptures to decorate the buffet tables. Cruise ship buffets are also famous for their use of ice sculptures. Ice sculptures are often used wedding receptions, usually as some form of decoration. Popular subjects for ice sculptures at weddings are hearts, doves, and swans.

Butter Sculpture
Butter sculpture is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist tradition; yak butter and dye are still used to create temporary symbols for the Tibetan New Year and other religious. The heyday of butter sculpting was from about 1890 to 1930. During this period refrigeration became widely available, and the American dairy industry began promoting butter sculpture as a way to compete against synthetic butter substitute like Oleomargarine (margarine).

Uses
Butter sculptures often depict animals, people, buildings and other objects. They are best known as attractions at state fairs in the United States as life size cows and people, but can also be found on banquets tables and even small decorative butter pats.

In Europe, during the Renaissance and Baroque periods molding food was commonly done for wealthy banquets. It was during this period that the earliest known reference to a butter sculpture is found. In 1536 Bartolomeo Scappi, cook to Pope Pius V, organized a feast composed of nine scenes elaborately carved out of food, each carried in episodically as centerpieces for a banquet. The earliest butter sculpture in the modern sense (as public art and not a banquet centerpiece) can be traced to the 1876 Centennial Exhibition where Caroline Shawk Brooks, a farm woman from Helena, Arkansas, displayed her Dreaming Lolanthe, a bas relief bust of a woman modeled in butter.

Salt Sculpture
tax revenues. Salt is also used in religious ceremonies and has other cultural significance. Salt is produced from salt mines or by the evaporation of seawater or mineral-rich spring water in shallow pools.

Techniques
When you add salt to water, the crystals dissolve and form a salt solution. When as much salt is dissolved in a solution as possible, the solution is saturated. The saturation point is different at different temperatures. At higher temperatures, more salt can be added to the solution. When you heated the water, you could add lots of salt - the saturation point is high. When the salt water begins to cool, there solution is supersaturated. There is more salt in the solution than is normally possible at low temperatures. Salt molecules begin to crystallise out of the solution back into a solid.

Salt in its natural form as a crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantities in the sea where it is the main mineral constituent. Salt is essential for animal life, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous of food seasonings, and salting is an important method of food preservation.

Some of the earliest evidence of salt processing dates back to around 6,000 years ago, when people living in Romania were boiling spring water to extract the salts; Salt was prized by the ancient Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Hittites and the Egyptians. Salt became an important article of trade and was transported by boat across the Mediterranean Sea, along specially built salt roads, and across the Sahara in camel caravans. The scarcity and universal need for salt has led nations to go to war over salt and use it to raise